We've just checked into El Cosmico in Marfa and our morning in Gruene feels miles away. While the rest of Texas had its eyes on Wendy Davis, we are currently wandering around in a pitch black field trying to find Sarah's safari tent ($65) and my trailer ($120), dubbed the Kozy Coach.

There's very little activity but I can already tell the place is hip – there's Jo's coffee from Austin on the counter, designer soap and plenty of places to charge gadgets. More on this hotel – and this currently sleeping town – in the morning.

On the way in, we stopped to see the famous Marfa mystery lights flickering in the distance from the highway – the lights look like tricks on the eyes, but there's definitely something flickering in the distance. My bet: there's a light far out in the fields on a timer. (Sorry, Marfans.)

Our search for wi-fi upon arrival has been futile. For now, it's time to shut down the blog. Tomorrow morning we'll explore Marfa and hit the road. On our route: Fort Davis, Balmorhea, Pecos, White Sands and Roswell. Tips welcome!

Meanwhile in Austin, state history in the making?

While Katie, Sarah and John have been heading west across Texas, Senator Wendy Davis has been holding a marathon filibuster in an attempt to prevent one of the nation's strictest bans on abortion from receiving Governor Rick Perry's signature.

As Amanda Holpuch and Helen Davidson have reported for the Guardian, Davis has been unable to take a break for any reason throughout the filibuster. The ongoing proceedings began with her opening statements:

"What purpose does this bill serve? And could it be, might it just be a desire to limit women's access to safe, healthy, legal, constitutionally-protected abortions in the state of Texas?"

"She rode with her hat pulled down in the front and fastened under her chin with a drawtie and as she rode … all seeming unaware down through the low hills while the first spits of rain blew on the wind and onto the upper pasturelands and past the pale and reedy lakes riding erect and stately until the rain caught her up and shrouded her figure away in that wild summer landscape: real horse, real rider, real land and sky and yet a dream withal."

En route

The roads traveled

Day two of the #TwiTrip across Texas has spanned hundreds of miles – farther than the distance from DC to Boston – and included everything from strudels in Gruene to spelunking in Sonora and the expanses of Hill Country towards Marfa. It's been a long day, soon to be rewarded by the oft recommended Marfa lights.

We've arrived in Alpine for dinner at Reata at Atlatl2's suggestion. The special of the day is grilled catfish (Sarah wasn't kidding about its popularity.)

We've just completed the longest leg of the drive – about 450 miles straight across Texas with stops in between – and we're feeling ragged but happy to be free from our air conditioned box on wheels, as lovely as it is. We're staring bleary-eyed at the menus, so the earlier jalapeño cilantro soup suggestion is much appreciated.

We've still got 30 miles to go until Marfa, where we'll check out the reader-recommended Marfa lights and the El Cosmico tent. We're staying in a trailer. Stay tuned.

Fort Stockton: meep meep

Readers felt strongly about a stop in Fort Stockton to see Paisano Pete, the oversized foul that's the community's claim to fame.

Unfortunately, none of us checked his size before arriving in town – our eyes were trained to the skies expecting a giant winged behemoth. We passed Pete about two minutes into arriving in Fort Stockton. We asked directions from three friendly locals – "you can't miss that summbitch" – but would end up passing him at least two more times before finally spotting him on the corner.

We finally approached the statue feeling a but underwhelmed – one of us might've yelled out "Dammit Pete!" – but John, Sarah and I left with a keepsake picture of the bird, which, alas, is no longer even the world's largest roadrunner, as the town's brochure admits.

Leaving Paisano Pete and the rather ramshackle town of Fort Stockton behind, we're in the road to Alpine, about 60 miles southwest of Fort Stockton. Thanks to Atlatl2's dinner suggestion, we'll try Reata.

The long road from Sorona's caverns to … anywhere.

Paisano bound

Katie has scheduled a stop in Fort Stockton later in the day, and would welcome any tips sent to @katierogers for good grub and the city's sights. So far, there's only been word of a huge bird.

But what more could you want? Sticking to the stereotype that everything is bigger in Texas, Paisano Pete – the greater roadrunner pictured at the top of this page – is the largest in the world, at 10 feet tall and 22 feet long.

And that's enough for this blogger, who drove 300 miles to see it – along with “every other household in Texas [that] has a picture somewhere of the kids standing at his feet … Sure, he has no animatronics. He doesn't talk or pluck a huge rubber worm from the ground at the top of every hour. He offers no historical or educational significance. But he's darned big. And in the end, that's all that matters.”

Caverns of Sonora

We've just emerged from the Caverns of Sonora, one of many caverns on the trip suggested by readers. Besides because it was recommended by usaprofessor5, we chose it because the caverns are quite literally in the middle of nowhere, and Sonora is the rough halfway point to Marfa. (Yes, we are making horrible timing.)

Discovered in 1905, the caverns are privately owned and are on the same land as a small campsite and general store. There are over seven miles of underground trails in the caverns, the longest in Texas, according to our guide, Patrick Hogan. The average tour is $20 and takes nearly two hours, but he gave us the improvised 45-minute version since our sidetracks to Banera and Imitation Stonehenge dragged out our plans a bit.

Inside the humid cave, we went nearly 180 feet underground to see different types of rare rock formations, the many-syllabled names of which escape me now. But Patrick showed us formations shaped into things we recognized: a pair of wolves, coral, a butterfly with a broken wing – and, because this is Texas, 'cavern bacon'.

While we had Patrick in such close quarters, we asked the Massachusetts native about Texas.

What's the biggest misconception? "That everything is bigger."

The biggest truth: "The people are nicer."

We climbed out of the cavern just a bit ago and are on the 130-mile journey toward Fort Stockton. If there's anything we can quickly visit in town – there are rumors of a giant road runner statue – be sure to let me know.

Texas Hole Country

Texas Hill Country turns out to be rife with caves, and though Katie's heading to the Caverns of Sonora, there were too many for her get to on the road to Marfa. On Guardian Witness, Brian Vauter recommended the Natural Bridge Caverns, which are about 30 minutes north of San Antonio. He points out that the 'Hall of the Mountain King' is "as big as a football field (American football, mind you)".

Natural Bridge Caverns. Photograph: /flickr: Brian Vauter

There's also the not-so-aptly named Cave Without a Name, between San Antonio, New Braunfels and Kerrville, and the Longhorn Caverns, which have been home to Ice Age animals, Comanches, and Confederate soldiers, according to the park service.

On the road

We've officially entered the Road Trip segment of this live blog. It snuck up on us directly after we left Ingram. No cell service and very little scenery; the rolling green of Texas Hill Country shifted to the rocky expanse of West Texas before our eyes.

The temperature outside is a balmy 91 degrees – it's 109 in Austin right now, so looks like we got out just in time.

Stonehenge II

Before heading out of the Kerrville area, we decided to stop off at Ingram, home to Stonehenge II, the hollow younger sibling of the neolithic British stone structure.

The formation rests on the grounds of the Hill Country ArtsFoundation, which hosts local plays and art education classes. It also sits next to a softball field, which makes this Stonehenge a strange and uniquely American sight.

Chicken fried steak!

At TarquinFintimlin's suggestion, we stopped at the Lakehouse, a roadside restaurant overlooking the Guadalupe River that prides itself in its farm-raised ("always in America!") catfish.

I had the most popular menu item, four pieces of Lakehouse catfish, for $10.95. According to photographer Sarah, catfish is the most commonly found fish in Texas, just because there's not much else to choose from.

Bandera

While we're waiting for another update from Katie, here's a short film about Bandera - Cowboy Capital of the World - which, according to the town's website, harks back to "a different, more authentic, era, when a handshake was all the contract you needed, self-reliance was the norm, and chivalry was a given".

Reception is looking patchy on the car radio, so rather than wait, here's the team's second Texas mix (scroll down to get past number 8). We've got some more tunes coming in from readers, which we'll put up later...so keep them coming

Cowboy capital of the world

About an hour into our journey west, we decided to jog up to Bandera, the self-proclaimed Cowboy Capital of the World. It's only going to add about 20 minutes, so we decided to make the trip to the town (pop: 957).

We've spotted vultures perching on billboards and an Oprah-recommended ranch [Enchanted Ranch outside San Antonio] ... so the scenery is definitely getting interesting as we cross Texas Hill Country.

Top tippage

Ft. Stockton: Dylan Reece says: "Stop to eat some pretty good Tex-Mex at Mi Casita, which is the last town to fuel up before a long stretch of desert driving."

Alpine: Atlatl2 reckons "the only good place to eat is at Reata. Make sure to try the jalapeno and cilantro soup."

Marfa: chicabuck says "Welcome to Marfa! You are going to love it.Eat at Cochineal for dinner. Plan a pre-dinner drink at Jett's. The courtyard is fun and the margaritas are great. Drop by the Wrong store. Definitely go to Chinati and see the art. It's the reason. Opens on Wednesday.

Thanks for the tips and please keep the tips coming to the usual places: @KatieRogers, #TwiTrips, below in the comments

New Braunfels and 'the oldest bakery in Texas'

About six miles away is the town of New Braunfels, known for its German influences ('Braunfel' means 'brown rock' in German) and also for its quality tubing and water park offerings, none of which we will have time to visit today. But if you're interested, Schlitterbahn was by far the most popular reader recommendation for New Braunfels. There's also a huge cavern here called Natural Bridge, but we are bypassing those for Caverns of Sonora later today.

Before we set off on our journey toward the day's halfway point, Sonora, we walked around the centre of New Braunfels and visited Naeglin's Bakery. The bakery bills itself as the oldest in Texas and the smell of its strudel permeates the entire town centre.

I bought a German pretzel ($2.15) to share with my tripmates while we're on the road. After picking up our second coffee at the day at Crosswalk Coffeehouse, we hopped back into the car.

Our next stop is Kerrville, about 60 miles away – anyone know what we should be on the lookout for? If you have an idea, you know what to do. We're also in the midst of building our own playlist for the road, which we'll share with you soon.

Meat comas are real

In the interest of saving time, John, Sarah and I decided to have breakfast at our inn, the Gruene Apple. As show tunes from Disney movies plinked from the automatic piano, the friendly owners prepared a tasty hotel breakfast of sausage, biscuits and eggs. We ate while overlooking the Comal river.

Breakfast was the first time Sarah and I managed to get a word out of John since arriving at the Gruene Apple last night. It turns out meat comas are real: John was in a nearly literal meat stupor after overdoing it at Smitty's. But he bravely pulled it together after spotting the breakfast spread.

We left about an hour ago and are still discussing the inn's themed decor. My room had a golf theme, while Sarah had some sort of floral air-travel scheme. I think we all regret not asking to see what was behind each oddly named door in the inn.

Morning medley

We like to start our day on a musical note, and @bristela made a good suggestion in yesterday's blog:

Another music suggestion: you should definitely try some Tejano (aka Norteño). Best description I can come up with is it sounds like Mexcian polka. I never would have guessed at its existence if I hadn't heard it for myself

Luckily, we had a playlist all cued up, thanks to Piper LeMoine, a music journalist with Rancho Alegre Radio in Austin, Texas, which is dedicated to promoting and preserving conjunto and tejano music.

Good morning, Gruene

Welcome to the second day of our road trip through Texas. We left quirky Austin behind yesterday and ended up in Gruene, home to the oldest dance hall in Texas and countless B&Bs – read more about Day One here.

We’ve got a pretty brutal day of travel ahead of us: 426 miles and six Texas towns separate us from today's final destination, Marfa.

We’re looking for lunch options in Kerrville and some site suggestions in Fort Stockton and Alpine, so please send those along if you have them. I’m off to grab breakfast and check out the town square in New Braunfels, but you can look ahead to the day’s agenda here:

Kerrville. What’s here? Suggestions on where to eat are very welcome.

Ingram. We’ll take a look at Stonehenge II, which is exactly what you think it is.

Sonora. On NyokaRafiki and usaprofessor5’s recommendation, we’ll check out the Caverns of Sonora, which is essentially our halfway point to Marfa.

Fort Stockton. I’ve heard this place has a giant statue of a bird, but other than that, let me know what I should see.

Alpine. Is it just like Marfa, as some people have told me? I hope someone from Alpine weighs in on this.